About – Bridget Dunlap

Bridget Dunlap leapt into Pearl Bar, her first business venture in Houston feet first, with grit and a bold vision and paid off her investors within four months of opening.

This single mom working three jobs to pay rent and keep her baby in diapers could not afford to fail and would not stop until her vision was realized. Pearl Bar’s success enabled her to open Lustre Pearl bar on Rainey Street in Austin. Where others saw a grungy, torn-down neighborhood, Dunlap recognized massive potential for the charming block already green-lighted for massive development. Lustre Pearl’s near instant success allowed her to sell off her Houston venture to invest wholeheartedly in the quickly transitioning Austin neighborhood.

Dunlap followed up her success with Lustre Pearl by opening Clive Bar and Bar 96 in quick succession, and later opening Container Bar on the same block. Her bold move to open bars on Rainey initiated a new entertainment district in Austin and heralded an era of rapid growth in that neighborhood.

While developers eventually took over the original corner lot where Lustre Pearl thrived, Dunlap and her husband, Chris Parker, picked themselves up, and dusted themselves off. When Lustre’s head was cut off, instead of two heads growing back, she sprang forth with three, more powerful than the mythical Hydra. Lustre’s reincarnation came in the form of a modern Lustre Pearl on Rainey Street, Lustre Pearl East (built around the original Lustre house), and Lustre Pearl Denver. Never content to sit on their laurels, the Dunlap ATX team have more projects in store for the future, so stay tuned!

Business organizations, MBA programs, women’s’ groups, and international organizations frequently invite Dunlap as a motivational speaker. She also travels to counsel young entrepreneurs on urban business development and creating entertainment districts. Dunlap spends as much time as she can at home or traveling with her kids and her beautiful husband.

Dunlap likes to party hard, travel often, read, write, sing, roller skate, and karaoke among other very sophisticated activities.